Personal Letter/End Comments

Personal Letter/ End Comments can be a way for you to help
the student to distinguish between higher order concerns from lower order
concerns while also addressing the student from a readerís perspective. The
personal letter/end comments are designed to focus on one or two substantive issues
that are present in the studentís text. It can help identify the strengths of
the paper, suggest improvements, and/or explain the reason for the grade. There
are many different ways that you can construct the personal letter/ end
comments; however, here are some helpful things to include.

Donít just focus on the negative. Provide a couple of
sentences that reinforce or highlight what the student has done well in their
text. This way, the student can continue to implement the things that are
working for future written assignments.

†Respond as a
reader and mention specific places in the text that you had difficulty
with.† Make sure you are specific
with both your praise and critique. †You may want to consider limiting your suggestions to only
one or two aspects of the studentís writing, as more than that may overwhelm
the student.†

If it is an early draft, offer up some suggestions as to
what the student can improve on for the next draft. These suggestions can be
anything from organization, thesis statement, or sentence-level concerns. †If it is a final draft, try to come up
with comments that may be helpful for the studentís future writing assignments.

Be careful of providing comments that may appear to be
taking control over the studentís ideas or organization. Instead, try to
include suggestions that may help the student restructure or add to their
ideas. The majority of the students will respond better to suggestions, not
commands.††